This invention relates generally to telephone surge protection circuitry and more particularly, it relates to a circuit protection assembly having a two-piece interfitting housing which receives a main printed circuit board for mounting sockets therein, a plurality of individual auxiliary miniature printed circuit boards each for mounting a Category 5/circuit surge protector device and for plugging into the respective sockets, an exposed side connector device, and a protected side connector device for protecting telecommunication related equipment and the like with up to 25-pairs of wires.
While there are known in the prior art of a 25-pair circuit protection assembly for protecting telecommunication related equipment having up to 25-pairs of wires from transient voltage/current surges, the surge protector devices therein do not meet the current Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) for Category 5 specification (#568A). Such 25-pair circuit protection assembly of the prior art is described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,409 to R. H. Heidorn et al. issued on Jan. 9, 1996, and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. This '409 patent is hereby incorporated by reference. In FIGS. 1 through 7, the 25-pair circuit protection assembly includes a two-piece interfitting housing 12, a printed circuit board sub-assembly 30, an exposed side connector device 46, and a protected side connector device 54. A printed circuit board 56 is mounted inside the housing and is adapted to receive any number of circuit protector devices. Schematic circuit diagrams of the various circuit protector devices are illustrated in FIGS. 7, 10, 11 and 16. However, none of these various circuit protector devices were able to protect telephone communication equipment from power and transient surges and also meet the current TIA specification for Category 5.
The present invention represents improvements over the above-discussed '409 patent that could not meet the TIA specification for Category 5. Thus, the inventors of the present invention have developed an improved circuit protection assembly for protecting telecommunication related equipment and the like with up to 25-pairs of wires from power and transient surges and yet still meet the TIA specification for Category 5. In the present invention, the housing has been designed to fit into the same footprint as that of a conventional 66-M type terminal block. A printed circuit board sub-assembly includes a main printed circuit board and is fixedly mounted internally of the housing and is adapted to receive 25 individual Category 5/circuit surge protector devices so as to provide the protection against power and transient surges. Further, the printed circuit board sub-assembly includes a first terminal connector device disposed on the exposed side and a second terminal connector device disposed on the protected side. Each of the 25 Category 5/circuit surge protector devices is mounted on an associated auxiliary miniature printed circuit board adapted to be plugged into corresponding sockets mounted on the main printed circuit board so as to facilitate the individual replacement of damaged protector devices.